Universal Design in the Performing Arts | Conference | Guests

Dominika Kozłowska – actress, deaf. Theater and film actress. The first deaf actress in Polish history to hold a full-time position, employed by the Juliusz Słowacki Theater in Kraków. A graduate of ROE – Acting School in Wrocław, majoring in acting. She has appeared in the following productions: War in Heaven (dir. Dominika Feiglewicz-Penarska), Zosia (dir. Marta Streker), Kopakonan – A Tale of a Female Seal (dir. Grzegorz Grecas), Back to Beckett (dir. Jarosław Fret), Stories from the Big Blocks (dir. Marta Streker), The Heart Stopped (dir. Marzena Sadocha), Wojnokraka (dir. Grzegorz Grecas), Romeo and Juliet (dir. Dominika Feiglewicz-Penarska and Zdenka Pszczołowska). A Sign with a Tongue (dir. Daniel Kotowski). Antigone (dir. Kuba Roszkowski). She appeared in the films: Through the Wall (dir. Maciej Sobieszczański), SILENCE (dir. Julia Patsora), Melody of Silence (dir. Ina Knap), Freak Show (dir. Łukasz Ronduda and Filip Pawlak). The film The Art of Courage, directed by Dominika Płatek and starring Dominika Kozłowska, won third place in the documentary film category at the 9th Lower Silesian Film Festival and received an honorable mention at the 19th CK OFF Film Festival. She appeared in the TV series: St. Anne’s Hospital. She appeared in the play Wojna w niebie (War in Heaven), which won the grand prize in the 2019 “The Best Off” competition for best independent play, as well as in the play Romeo and Juliet at the Słowacki Theater, which won the “Golden Yorick” at the Shakespeare Festival in Gdańsk. Winner of the Tukan Award from the Journalists’ Association at the 44th Review of Actors’ Songs in Wrocław for “For the courage to speak the truth, for the geyser of emotions and for opening our eyes, for transcending our notions of what an actor’s interpretation of a song is. Truth and courage are paramount values in the work of journalists.” She received an honorable mention in the “Man Without Barriers” competition. A deaf actress with an impressive body of work. She was an ambassador for the campaigns: “Don’t Believe It? You Don’t Have To!” It’s Enough That You Know!, and Wspólne Tory, which promotes the work and creativity of outstanding artists with disabilities from Lower Silesia, as well as I Am an Artist, featuring artists with disabilities. She has played leading and supporting roles in films and theater productions. She performs in bilingual productions and in sign language. She is sometimes the only deaf actress in a cast, but that doesn’t hinder her work. She would like to play a character in an action movie. Her life motto is: “I never give up.”

Robert Więckowski – Vice President of the Board of the Culture Without Barriers Foundation. An avid reader by nature, professionally fascinated by the art of words, and in his personal life, a husband and father, a seeker of mountains and sunshine, blues-rock, and faith to the very end. He works in text editing, audio description (training and consulting), and accessibility for people with visual impairments (training and consulting).

Diana Anselmo is a queer and Deaf performer and visual artist, activist and improvised human being. Bilingual LIS and Italian, he debuted with the lecture Autoritratto in tre atti (2021), making Italian and international replicas. Abroad, he makes his debut in Berlin with Le Sacre du Printemps (2022) by Xavier Le Roy. In 2023 he produced the lecture Je Vous Aime, which in 2024 acquired exhibition form with a solo show at Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. He is currently represented by Eugenia Delfini Gallery. In 2024 he also activated a collaboration with dancemaker Cristina Kristal Rizzo, with whom he co-authored the performance Monumentum DA. Diana is among the founders of Al.Di.Qua. Artists, Europe’s first professional association of/for disabled artists, as well as the youngest member of the Cultural Advisory Board of the British Council.

Dr. Maria Oshodi is a researcher, writer, theatre director and arts consultant. She has worked in disability arts development,, for BBC drama production and as a playwright, with Her first play, The S Bend, being produced as part of the royal Court Theatre’s young Writers Festival in 1984 and later by the cockpit theatre in 1985. She went on to write four more plays including, Blood, Sweat and Fears, From Choices to Chocolate, Here Comes a Candle, and Hound, that all toured nationally and were published by Longmans, Metheuen, John Murray and Arora Metro Books. In 1992 she graduated from Middlesex University with a 1st BA honor in Drama and English. In 1997 she founded Extant, the award winning, UK leading performing arts company of visually impaired artists, where she is currently CEO/Artistic Director. Her Phd critiques and positions four of Extant’s ground-breaking productions produced by the Company over the last 25 years.

Krzysztof Głuchowski – He has lived in Kraków since 1986. A graduate of the Academy of Theatre Arts in Kraków, Department of Acting (diploma performance: *Sketches from Robert Musil’s *The Man Without Qualities*, directed by Krystian Lupa). He made his debut in 1991 at the Helena Modrzejewska Old Theater in Kraków: *Malte, or The Triptych of the Prodigal Son* by Rainer Maria Rilke, directed by Krystian Lupa. For nearly thirty years, he has been a curator and organizer of exhibitions, a theater producer (for productions by Krystian Lupa, Krzysztof Warlikowski, and Jan Peszek, among others), a film and television producer, a film distributor, and a festival producer. First director of the Bunkier Sztuki Contemporary Art Gallery and the Manggha Museum of Japanese Art and Technology. He co-organized, among others, the international film festival Era New Horizons (T-Mobile New Horizons, New Horizons) in Cieszyn and Wrocław, the Katowice Off Festival, the Off Camera Kraków International Independent Film Festival, and the Divine Comedy International Theater Festival. Since 2019, he has been the president of the Stanisław Wyspiański Association. Since September 2016, he has been the General and Artistic Director of the J. Słowacki Theater in Kraków. There, he directed the play Born by BONEY M. He has performed in the plays Act of Killing, directed by Jan Klata, and in Dziady and Wesele, directed by Maja Kleczewska. Awards and distinctions:
Recipient of the Zygmunt Hübner Award for THEATRE PERSON OF THE YEAR 2023.
Recipient of the City of Kraków Award in the “Culture and Art” category 2023
In 2024, he was featured in Jacek Sieradzki’s subjective list of theater actors for the e-teatr platform (“Victory”).

Justyna Sobczyk – Director, theater educator, founder of Warsaw’s Teatr 21 (2005), whose actors are people with Down syndrome and on the autism spectrum; member of the Teatr 21 Foundation; co-founder of the Association of Theater Educators (2010); until 2025, she co-founded the team at the Center for Inclusive Arts/ Teatr 21, the first community-based cultural institution in Warsaw dedicated to the work of artists with disabilities. From 2005 –2025, she was affiliated with the Zbigniew Raszewski Theater Institute, where Poland’s first and only two-year postgraduate program in theater pedagogy was launched in 2014; she co-directed the program from its inception until 2025 alongside Dr. Zofia Dworakowska of the Institute of Polish Culture at the University of Warsaw (the program is the result of a collaboration between the two institutes.) She graduated from the Universität der Künste in Berlin (2002–2004, a two-year postgraduate program in theater pedagogy funded by a DAAD scholarship, earning a Master of Arts degree in this field). She teaches “theater pedagogy” at the Theater Academy in Warsaw and the Academy of Theater Arts in Krakow. A graduate of the School of Leaders programs: “Two Sectors, One Vision” and the Leadership Innovation Laboratory. A graduate of the Academy of Leadership Psychology: an intensive course in business psychology at the Warsaw University of Technology Business School and the Values company led by Jacek Santorski. Since September 2025, she has been the director of the Ochota Theater, Poland’s first municipal theater for young people.

Johanna Freundlich is a theatre and opera director and dramaturg. Freundlich serves as the Artistic Director of the Helsinki Festival, which is the largest multi-arts festival in the Nordic countries. Her curatorial period began with the 2025 festival, which featured, among others, Sydney Dance Company and Bang on a Can All-Stars, as well as the world premiere of Tempo by Kalle Nio, which was later invited to the Venice Biennale. Her theatre work includes My Cat Yugoslavia at the Finnish National Theatre, based on the novel by Pajtim Statovci, which played to sold-out audiences for a year and a half. Freundlich’s production of Tony Kushner’s six-hour play Angels in America won the Ester Award for Theatre Production of the Year. Operas include Suor Angelica on the main stage of the Finnish National Opera and Philip Venables’ Denis & Katya in the Almi Hall. Freundlich has served on the leadership team of the Tampere Theatre Festival, and has worked as a visiting teacher at, among others, the Sibelius Academy.

Vanja Vasiljevic is an international cultural cooperation and EU projects manager working in the performing arts sector. She currently works at Teatro Stabile del Veneto Carlo Goldoni, where she develops and manages international partnerships and projects funded by programmes such as Creative Europe, Erasmus+, Interreg and ESF+. Her work sits at the intersection of artistic creation, international cooperation and organisational sustainability: from designing European projects and partnerships to managing budgets, mobility programmes, contracts and complex production logistics. She is particularly interested in how cultural institutions can build stronger relationships with communities through participation, wellbeing-oriented practices and socially engaged artistic projects. Over the years, she has worked on initiatives connecting theatre, education, youth engagement and mental health, while supporting artists and institutions in creating meaningful international collaborations. With a background in cultural management and performing arts studies, Vanja strongly believes that culture should be ambitious, accessible and deeply connected to people’s lives — both on and off stage.

Jelena Božić – Journalist and activist from Serbia. She works as a programme coordinator at the Kulturanova Association.

Filip Pawlak – a theater artist and advocate for artists with disabilities. A graduate of the Film School in Katowice, the Academy of Fine Arts in Wrocław, and the MA program in performing arts at the Malmö Academy of Theatre and the University of Lund. Since 2025, a doctoral candidate in film and theater arts at the University of Silesia in Katowice. In his work, he combines the roles of artist and producer. In 2024, he received a scholarship from the Minister of Culture and National Heritage as part of the “Young Poland” program and was a resident at the Hellerau European Center for the Arts in Dresden, the Komuna Warsaw Theater, and Skanes Dansteater in Malmö. Together with Łukasz Ronduda, he is the creator and director of the film “Freak Show.”